Where In The World Is Evan?

After reading Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception while I was in Bangkok I’d become quite intrigued by his self documented experience with mescaline. Huxley makes an interesting sociological argument about the role of alcohol in western society. The boring nature of most of our lives creates a demand for a readily available and socially acceptable inebriant to allow us to experience altered states of consciousness. Whilst he argues that in an ideal society this need would be abated we must face the reality of our present condition.

The social acceptance of alcohol, as opposed to marijuana or other inebriants, is a historical oddity, primarily of western society. He argues that so long as society requires an inebriant is behoves us in the modern era to discard the historical acceptance of alcohol in favour of a drug that has less detrimental side effects. Every year we see countless deaths and acts of violence caused by the aggressive effects of alcohol. Mescaline, he argues, whilst not being completely free of negative side effects itself is a much more spiritually and intellectually satisfying drug than alcohol, and instead of producing aggression it induces a sense of well being and respect for the beauty of nature.
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